A/N: Hello there! Sorry I haven't updated in a month, but I just finished my finals, phew! I also edited the first two chapters to accommodate a major change in the future of the story. No more details, you'll have to wait and see …

Chapter 3: Let It Flow

One day, at lunch, Chloe had another slip-up, a bigger one this time. She was sitting down, talking with Liam about the new guy (or according to Scott, the former friend) Theo. He'd been hovering on the outer limits of her new circle of friends ever since the beginning of the term, and so far, they weren't on the same page as to how to deal with him. Scott wanted to welcome his old friend in his group, like no time had passed between them, but Stiles was beyond suspicious of him and kept telling his best friend not to trust the guy, that there was something wrong with him, and so on. He was so adamant about it that even Chloe, who had never even spoken to Theo and had thought he was pretty nice to look at, was getting nervous when she would see him in the hallways. She had to admit there was something just a little bit weird about the way he looked at her and her friends, like they belonged to him. It might just be cockiness, or there was more to him than met the eye as well …

A poke in the ribs cut her reflection short and made her jump on her chair, letting out a loud scream, her arms flailing. Stiles, because of course it was Stiles, was pushed back with such force he stumbled and skidded on the floor. People stopped talking around them and stared. Mortified, Chloe got up quickly and held out hr hand toward Stilinski.

"Dude, never scare a girl who's done martial arts. You're lucky to still have all your fingers!" she added, chuckling nervously under the stares.

Stiles followed her lead, but she didn't miss the terrified glance he shot at her extended hand before taking it. He took it anyway, trying to keep face, and sat down quietly at the table. He barely took part to the others' conversations until the end of the lunch break. Kira and Liam, on the other hand, became suddenly twice as talkative as before.

"You know martial arts? That's so cool" said Liam. He was apparently a fan of martial arts movies and would have kept going on about the merits of Chow Yun Fat, if Kira hadn't interrupted him.

"What type of martial arts do you know?"

"Oh you know, I've tried a few before finding one that suited me. I have basics in karate and judo, but I'm best at baritsu."

Lydia's head shot up at this. She shot a somewhat suspicious look at Chloe but said nothing. She wouldn't have been able to place a word anyway, because Kira and Liam were in the middle of a heated discussion about the Drunken Master movies, arguing whether or not the remake was better than the original.

Chloe felt guilt and shame tightening her stomach and she left the lunch table, her sandwich half-eaten. She hoped Stiles wouldn't think anything of this accident, that he'd be quickly distracted by more important matters, that he'd just forget what just happened. But luck was never on her side.

x-x-x-x-x

"Scott, I'm telling you, there was a good three inches between her hand and my body! She didn't push me, at least not physically."

The boys were in the locker room, changing before Lacrosse practice, and Stiles was losing it, or at least Scott thought so.

"Stiles be reasonable. How could she have done that?"

"I don't know, maybe she's got superpowers, maybe she's a powerful Sith who came here incognito to …"

"… to pass Econ' with Coach?" Scott interrupted. "Come on dude, Chloe doesn't have any supernatural vibe. We would have felt it by now. Besides, what kind of creature has that kind of mind powers? If you know any …"

"Weirder things have happened" Stiles answered from the depths of his jersey. "Come on Scott, this is Beacon Hills, an actual beacon, you know that. What doesn't happen here?"

"Nothing normal, I'll give you that."

They both grabbed their equipment and went out onto the field. It was a gorgeous Fall day outside, not a cloud in sight, no wind, and the sun was still warm on their backs as they did push-ups and practiced their aim, unaware that Chloe was sitting behind the bleachers, losing every last bit of self-control she had left.

x-x-x-x-x

Nothing worked. Every time she twitched her fingers, the wind would pick up and make her hair float around her face. It was easy to control when she could use it at will, but not so when she had to keep it under wraps. After almost an hour of concentrating with little result, tiny sparks of magic flaring up all around her without her say-so, she grew so frustrated that she had to bite in her beanie hat to keep herself from screaming.

And that's when it hit her, like a slap to the face. Something her mother used to say, over a decade ago, when Chloe was just a toddler who would sometimes cry without even knowing why.

"Pumpkin, your heart is like a big glass. It gets filled with all the emotions you feel everyday. Sometimes, it gets too full and it overflows. Sometimes you just need to let it flow, it's the only thing you can do."

She still used that phrasing sometimes with her mom, to explain away some morose feeling or just a bad day. Her heart was overflowing.

Right now her magic was overflowing. It had never happened before. She had total control over herself, at least most of the time. Well, if this was anything like too much emotions to get rid of, there was only one thing to do.

Let. It. Flow.

Chloe focused on her power, feeling it boiling inside her. She let her frustration rise up to the surface, the anger at having to keep her new friends at arm's length, at having no one around to talk to, at this transfer that changed so much in her life, at that hyperactive idiot who had scared her out of her skin today, at her shattering control. The more she concentrated, the more her power churned inside her, the more she wanted to scream. Her hands balled in fists at her sides, she fumed. And then lightning struck.

A distant rumble echoed on the field, the sound of thunder startling the players. Dark clouds had suddenly gathered from nowhere and the wind was rapidly picking up. Coach Finstock whistled, practice was over. He might have been known to be a hardass, he didn't want any of his star players electrocuted because they had their sticks up in a thunderstorm. They might need to skip a game! He sent all the boys back in the locker room. As Scott and Stiles were following the others, Stiles looked back around, checking that no equipment was left outside. What he saw had his jaw dropping.

A silhouette was coming towards the school, followed by the storm clouds. They seemed darker around her, they stuck to her soles and the wind was picking up strands of her hair, as if she was underwater and her hair was floating around her. Stiles tapped his best friend's shoulder, and the werewolf's eyes widened at the strange sight. Both boys stood frozen as the girl turned towards the main entrance of the school, her eyes looking up at the clouds. Stiles and Scott both did a double take when they saw her clearly. Was that Chloe?